


Music Is the Best Language

by L_ladybug



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Art Student Keith (Voltron), Choir AU, Dancer Lance (Voltron), How Do I Tag, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Pidge isn't mean in this one, Sassy Lance (Voltron), broganes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-09-01 10:02:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16762933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_ladybug/pseuds/L_ladybug
Summary: Keith is a singer but not a performer. When he gets roped into joining his school's elite choir group he feels like he doesn't belong. That is until a certain boy makes him feel otherwise.





	Music Is the Best Language

Keith has not, and will not, ever been a morning person. Unfortunately, high school is not made for people like him who prefer to stay in bed until noon, it’s made for psychos, like his older brother Shiro. Shiro graduated high school four years ago but, for some ungodly reason, he decided to come back to high school to be a choir director. Keith would be damned if he ever steps foot inside his high school after he graduates, he’d rather die. 

There are two things wrong with Shiro as a teacher. One, Shiro teaches at his old high school, which happens to be the same high school Keith is currently enrolled in. He can’t tell you how many times thirsty high school girls have asked him if his brother is single, to which he always responds “twenty-two, gay, and engaged” with a sarcastic smile. The other thing wrong is that Shiro is his only way to get to school since he can’t afford a car and refuses to walk. Which wouldn’t be a problem if Shiro wasn’t a monster and refused to be in his car any later than six in the morning.

“..th. Keith!” Shiro was next to Keith’s bed, shaking his shoulder as hard as he pleased. Don’t get Keith wrong, he loved his brother, but sometimes he wanted to deck him in the back of the neck as hard as he could. “Keith get up.”

Keith mumbled a string of cuss word into his pillow (“language Keith.”) before reluctantly grabbing his glasses and phone from off his nightstand. He shoved his glasses on and blinked blearily at the numbers ‘4:30’ that glared back at him… oh hell no. “Shiro,” Keith didn’t have the energy to put a hiss into his voice but he knew that Shiro knew it was supposed to be there. “Why does my phone say it’s four-thirty in the morning?”

“Because it’s four-thirty in the morning,” Shiro responded matter-of-factly and if that didn’t make Keith want to punch him in the gut. “We’re leaving at four fifty, I have to get to school early.” Keith looked up at his brother’s black polo tucked into dress pants and inwardly groaned at how clean cut he looked at four in the goddamn morning. Keith huffed and threw his blanket off of himself and onto Shiro, who sighed and let it fall to the floor. “Keith. Get up.”

With that, Shiro left his brother to get dressed and ready at four. In. The. Morning. Keith’s brain was barely active as he put on a generous amount of deodorant and threw on a plain grey t-shirt and black sweatshirt. He found a pair of black jeans at the top of the hamper that held the laundry he didn’t put away from last night and decided to put those on as well. In the bathroom, he brushed his hair and teeth at the same time due to Shiro’s pestering from downstairs (“Keith, I’m giving you a minute and a half!”) before finally swapping his glasses for contacts and heading out the door with his way too heavy backpack on his shoulders.

“Why don’t you let me drive?” Keith asked. He swiftly grabbed Shiro’s car keys from his hand before he had time to say anything and jogged to the driver’s side, unlocked the doors and threw his backpack onto the back seat before plopping himself in front of the steering wheel.

“What are you doing?” Shiro said. He opened the passenger door and went to go in but thought against it. Shiro crossed his arms over his chest, “what are you up to?”

Keith scoffed. “Wha- can I not do something nice for my dear older brother?”

“No. Because you never do.”

“Just get in the damn car, Shiro.”

“Ah, there’s the Keith I remember!” Shiro got in the car with a small smile on his face.

***  
The coffee in Keith’s hand was worth every little bit of whining coming from his brother. He pulled up to Starbucks, despite Shiro’s protests, because “if you wanna wake me up at four then you’re buying me a coffee at four.” They ended up arriving at 5:15 (oh the horror) with one happy Keith and one unhappy Shiro. Keith trailed behind Shiro as they walked the hallways to the choir room, and to Keith’s horror, heard peppy and very awake voices coming through the door.

Shiro swung the door open and Keith saw a group of three students and Shiro’s co-director, Allura. Keith recognized the boys in his grade, one was named Hunk but he wasn’t too sure about the name of the other. He looked way too put together for five in the morning though, wearing a baby blue jersey that had the number ‘10’ on the front in white letters with very well groomed brown hair that fell perfectly on his head. The jersey was loosely tucked into high waisted black skinny jeans and was completed with pure white high top Vans accented with the same baby blue that was on the jersey.

Keith couldn’t tell if he was a show-off or just liked to dress up. That question was quickly answered when he saw the boy’s face light up in a smirk with a raised eyebrow. Definitely a show-off.

“Hey, Mr. Shiro!” Hunk called out, making the group turn their attention to the new arrivals. Hunk was wearing a black bomber jacket that had Chinese dragon designs in yellow and a white undershirt with well fit jeans and black athletic sneakers.

“You're late! It must be the end of the world.” The one that Keith didn't recognize laughed. They had messy brown hair and giant round glasses that took up most of their face. They were wearing a wool coat that went down to the knees with a white shirt that had some words in loopy cursive tucked into a pair of black leggings. Their shoes were black platforms that gave them about an extra inch.

“As I recall Pidge, you came in five minutes ago,” Allura added. Today, Allura’s fluffy cloud white hair was up in a high ponytail and she wore a flowy pink sundress with sand brown boots that had heels at least two inches high.

Keith felt insanely underdressed.

Pidge threw their hand to their heart in feign hurt. “I've been ratted out! The pain!” They howled. The others started joking around, but Keith had no energy to stand anymore and snatched the lanyard that held Shiro’s keys from his hands.

“Keith-”

“As I recall Shiro,” Keith mocked Allura's British accent before switching back to his regular voice. “I was promised a nap in your office!” Keith smiled. He was too caught up with his brother to realize Allura rolling her eyes with a smile.

Keith unlocked the door and stepped inside, leaving the door open just a bit for him to say “sorry, I- I can't hear you over the sound of the sleep robbed from me coming back in the distance!” Keith closed the door and sighed, he could make this work. He plopped down into his brother's chair and pulled out the blanket he knew was stashed in the bottom right drawer and nestled into sleep.

He woke up, yet again, with Shiro shaking his shoulder. “Keith, get out of my chair. The first bell rung, go to class.” Shiro deadpanned. Keith grumbled and handed Shiro his blanket. As he got up to pop his joints, Shiro started lecturing. “You know it's not good to sleep with your contacts in-”

“Yeah, yeah.” Keith yawned. “I got it…” Keith threw his backpack back over his shoulders and left Shiro’s office. “See ya, Mr. Shirogane.”

“Have a good day Keith!” Allura called from her office.

“You too, ‘Lura,” Keith mumbled. On his way to class, he contemplated why Allura and Shiro decided to be teachers. He'd known Allura since Shiro knew her, since his Freshman year of high school and their Freshman year of college. Back then, Allura was just as bright eyed and bushy tailed as she is now, it was really kind of impressive. Since Keith had known her before she was a teacher, calling her “Ms. Altea” feels way too weird for his liking so he still calls her Allura. She doesn’t mind though.

Both of them are great teachers and even better singers but Keith doesn’t know how they’re able to deal with all these annoying kids because he sure as hell can’t.

The day droned on, as usual, busy work, busy work, quiz, test, quiz, more busy work. A regular Wednesday that he wouldn’t remember in a years time, or so he thought. After the final bell rang, Keith made his way back to the choir room for his brother. To his surprise, he heard a class behind the door murmuring among themselves, they didn’t sound excited though.

“So,” Shiro began with what Keith knows as his teacher voice, “were you all proud of that run?” There was a collective ‘no’ that came from the group of about twenty students. Keith walked in, caught the energy from the room and wanted to run back out The room felt heavy and full of disappointment from almost everyone in the room. Shiro was standing in front of the students on the risers with his arms folded across his chest while Allura was sitting in a chair off to the side, she saw Keith and gave a knowing nod that he returned. 

“This is your song. This piece belongs to Y'all, not me.” Shiro said calmly. Keith made his way to Shiro’s office and found it locked, he rolled his eyes and sighed. “I’ve seen every single one of you do better. I know that you can do it, you just have to want it.” Shiro paused and Keith thought he was done.

“Shiro,” Keith said, a few people turned to look at him but not the person he wanted to because, apparently, he wasn’t done talking.

“We could run it again, or we could leave it on that,” Shiro said, completely oblivious to his younger brother.

“Shiro,” Keith repeated, a bit louder this time. Still, he went unnoticed.

“I personally think that you need to redeem yourself.” 

“Shiro!” Keith called, even louder. Now, almost every student was staring at Keith, wondering who he was and why he was so casual with their teacher. Allura met Keith’s eye and cocked a confused eyebrow. Keith mouthed ‘it’s locked’ to which Allura mouthed ‘ooh.’ “Shiro!” Still nothing, he was still talking. Keith stared at Allura in disbelief, pointing to his brother and then using the same finger to make a circle around his temple in the air.

Is he crazy?!

Allura giggled in her hand and then stuck it out, tilting it from left to right.

A little bit.

Keith really didn’t have time for this. “Ugh, Takashi!” Keith said, now using his brother’s first name, still nothing. “...You little…” Keith mumbled, lifting up his left leg and unlacing his shoe. When they were little and Shiro ignored Keith, he would throw his shoe at him. Keith doesn’t do it as much as he used to but he does do it from time to time, like right now. 

Keith got his shoe off and dropped his backpack to the floor, he wound up his arm and threw his shoe at his brother as hard as he could. Now, since Keith did this so much as a child, Shiro was able to get out of his head and catch the shoe before it hit him in the head like Keith knew he would do. He stopped talking and stared at Keith, the whole class was silent, Allura was giggling.

“Shiro, the door is locked!” Keith told him, putting emphasis on each word. The students expected him to explode on this kid and send him to the office with a detention but it didn't’ happen, instead, he just sighed and tossed the shoe towards Allura, who was full on laughing at this point.

“You, shut up,” Shiro warned with no real malice. “And you,” he walked over to Keith, picked up his backpack and shoved it to Keith’s chest, causing a small “oof” of breath to come out. Shiro grabbed the top of Keith’s head and ruffled his hair harshly. “Professional environment. We don’t throw shoes.” He hissed with a fake smile, using his grip on Keith’s head to push him through the door after he unlocked it.

Keith snorted. “Professional environment my a-” Shiro closed the door before he could finish his sentence. There were a few seconds of silence before Shiro cleared his throat and lifted his hands towards Allura, who chucked Keith’s shoe back in his direction (still giggling). He caught it with ease and tossed it in front of the closed door, waiting there for Keith to retrieve it.

“Younger brothers...” Shiro said to the class with a smile.

***  
In the end, the class stayed five minutes after the final bell singing their piece and Keith was finally able to escape his brother’s office. When he opened the door after the class was dismissed, the same group of students from this morning was gathered around a computer on top of the piano.

“Lance, why am I reading this?” Pidge stared at the boy Keith didn’t know, Lance apparently.

“Because I will not accept the fact that you’ve never heard this!” Lance said. Hunk nodded in agreement and turned on his phone, the Bluetooth speakers connected to it almost immediately. A few seconds later and Pidge groaned as slow Spanish style music filled the room.

“No matter where we come from we can be ourselves and still be...one!” Lance sang out with a voice. At that point, the music sped up into a pop beat and Keith instantly recognized the song. “Amigas cheetahs, friends for life! The rhythm and each other, that’s what keeps us tight!” 

Both Lance, Hunk and Allura were up at this point, dancing with each other. At one point, Lance and Hunk started salsa dancing. They all traded verses but sang together for the chorus, they’re voices blending together pretty well. 

“Ya que estamos juntas estamos en un mundo donde somos uno por la música! If we just believe it, you know we can be it. Nothin’ can stand in our way! Stand in our way!” Lance sang the verse into the music break. Now Pidge was up on their feet and whooping like the rest of them. All of them were just messing around but it was obvious that Lance was skilled in moving his body.

Keith was just about to turn back into his older brother’s office when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He didn’t even have to turn around to know that it was Shiro. “I had kids coming up to me, asking if I was ‘like, a ninja or something’ because of my reflexes.” He said, raising his volume to be heard over the music and voices.

“Did you say yes?” Keith asked. Shiro’s ‘are you serious’ face made Keith burst into a laugh. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” he said when Shiro’s grip on his arm became tighter. Shiro released him with a dismissive sigh and an eye roll. “Anyway, can we leave? I’m tired and I wanna watch some t.v.”

“No, we have to rehearse,” Shiro said, gesturing to the whole classroom. Keith groaned loudly and went to grab Shiro’s car keys from his office. “Where are you going?”

“Getting your keys, duh!” Keith said. The music over the speaker slowly faded away and the party came to a halt when the D.J (Hunk) became more interested in their conversation than the music. “If you're staying here to rehearse I’m going home.”

“We’re staying here to rehearse!” Shiro corrected. “You’re rehearsing too.” Keith turned back to him with a confused stare. “You’re singing with us, Keith!” 

Keith starting laughing, he couldn’t help it! “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor! That’s funny!” He said, but Shiro wasn’t laughing. No one was. “You should be… Why aren’t you laughing?” Keith asked and Shiro simply raised his eyebrow. “Shiro… Shiro, no. Absolutely not. A hundred times no. Nope.”

Keith swiftly made his way to the door but was quickly stopped by Shiro’s unnaturally strong arm. “Do you not understand?! Noo. Aniyo!” Keith whined ‘no’ in Korean.

“Hai.” Shiro said ‘yes’ in Japanese as he pulled him away from the door. “Keith! You’re doing this!”

Keith wasn’t just not a morning person, he also wasn’t a performer. Unlike his older brother, Keith preferred to sing only in the shower. The problem with that is that he has lived with Shiro his whole life so he’s always heard “you should get in a choir, Keith!” “I think that, with some training, you could outsing me, Keith!” “I could teach you, Keith!” Blah, blah, blah. Keith always brushed it off and never thought he’d actually act on it.

But, unfortunately, he was very wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I realized that there's an AU for everything under the sun, except for a choir AU?? So, as the extra choir kid that I am, I wrote one.


End file.
